Clean and Simple Inspiration

Stampin' Up! Cards

February 10, 2010

Oh where oh where have I been? Not to London to see the Queen! I've just been busy with other projects.

Here are some more cards make with scraps. I'm making great inroads into my collection of card stock scraps. These cards are made with the same colors as the card in the previous post - tempting turquoise, so saffron and old olive with kraft as the base.

I love this new bird punch or the 'Extra Large 2-step Bird' to give its official name. What I don't love is using brads for the eyes - I think they look creepy. I prefer the small black pearl in the final card - what do you think?

January 25, 2010

I'm still working on that pile of scraps! Today's Splitcoast CAS challenge is to use patterned or designer paper in a clean and simple card. So out came my scraps again and my 1" circle punch. The paper I chose is called Flock Together and is on page 162 the current Idea Book & Catalog.

The finished card measures 4.75" x 4.75" and the vanilla panel measures 4.5" x 4.5". To line up the circles, I found the center of the vanilla panel by drawing lines from corner to corner. I placed the turquoise circle in the center and eyeballed it from there.

This would be a great layout to using up both card stock and patterned paper scraps. You could use a larger circle punch and make the overall card bigger - it has lots of possibilities.

I love these colors together, they look so fresh! I'll be posting a few more cards using this combo in the coming days.

December 14, 2009

This is a very quick share before I fall asleep at my computer! I got a chance to play with some new Occasions Mini Catalog goodies today and I'm in love with the new set Well Scripted! I bought the clear mount version and it was really easy to use - no Stamp-a-ma-jig required to get it straight!

Both projects were made for today's CAS challenge on Splitcoast, which was to use curves in your project. The first card uses the new Two-Step Bird punch - how fun is this punch?

The second is a tag for a wedding gift - it uses the new Vintage Vogue set as well as Well Scripted. Both are simply gorgeous sets - I'll be using them a lot!

Thanks for visiting. I hope you're not suffering from too much Holiday craziness!

November 09, 2009

Today's Clean and Simple Challenge on Splitcoast is to create a white card with one other color. For a November day in New England, it was unseasonably hot - 70 degrees! So, I ditched the Fall and Winter colors in favor of a summery color - hot pink.

I used my Big Shot to dry emboss the background and die cut both butterflies. The card came together so quickly and could easily be replicated with other color schemes, depending on what you have lying around on your craft table.

I have a busy week ahead preparing for a visit from my mum, but I'll try my best to get into my stamp room and make a few things to share.

November 02, 2009

Here's another card we made at Stamp Club this month. I showed the Sponge & Shimmer technique that I came up with a while ago. You can see a tutorial I wrote about it on Gingersnap Creations.

We brayered So Saffron ink onto a Very Vanilla panel, sponged on a variety of coordinating inks, then painted the whole piece with a thin coat of the new SU Shimmer paint (love that stuff!). Once the panel was dry, we stamped it with leaves from Autumn Splendor.

Here's another card I made using the same technique. Silhouette stamps work particularly well with this background.

If you've got any questions, please leave a comment and I'll get back to you.

November 01, 2009

I had been drooling over some cards that my blogging buddy Susan made with this set, so when I received this Berry Christmas set at the SU regional a couple of weekends ago, I was really excited. This one goes out to Susan!

The pink ornaments were made by punching out c/stock with the largest hole on the Crop-a-dile. I glued them to the wreath with a dot of liquid adhesive and adhered the glitter with a two-way glue pen.

We made this at stamp club this month and while I have to make this card with a Stamp-a-ma-jig, I was amazed that some people can eyeball it. I take my hat off to them because I certainly can't!

October 31, 2009

Happy Halloween! I just had to share with you this Halloween party invitation. A new member of my stamp club called Donna made dozens of them for her family's annual Halloween party. Isn't it fabulous?

The invitation is made with From the Crypt stamp set and she also included a save-the-date card made from the Graveyard Gala set. She attached a magnet to the back of it, so guests could place it on their fridge. I love that!

The photo doesn't really do it justice, but I think you can see the glitter on the skull.

She did such an amazing job with this invitation and it was a real hit at club. I can't wait to see what she comes up with for next year. Thanks for sharing Donna!

October 28, 2009

I haven't participated in the Featured Stamper challenged on Splitcoast for the longest time. But I actually had five extra minutes on Sunday afternoon to create a card for it. The Featured Stamper was Rachel - check out her gallery and blog.

I decided to CASE one of her clean and simple cards and copied her layout and color combo, but changed up the size and image.

Don't you just love this Delightful Decorations set and punch from the mini catalog? I really hope it makes it into the big catalog next year.

Here's another I made with the same set. I stamped the ornament with versamark ink on white c/stock, heat embossed with silver embossing powder and filled in the center with a black marker.

October 26, 2009

At Stamp Club last week we made several projects using the mini catalog set Autumn Splendor.

For one of the projects we used the Poppin' Pastels technique. The leaves were stamped onto Vanilla c/stock with Versamark ink and covered with SU pastels using sponge daubers. Because we planned to cut out the leaves, they were sprayed with hairspray to seal them.

The background, which is Naturals Ivory c/stock, was scored every 1/2" with a paper cutter and scoring blade. And sponged with Really Rust and Chocolate Chip ink.

I have to say that cutting out both leaves and acorns pushed some club members over the edge! But I think it was worth the effort because their cards turned out great.

I'm not totally in love with this card - it was a 'race against the school bus' card. It's a little unbalanced at the bottom - I should have chosen a stronger sentiment. Don't be surprised if I re-make this card. It'll bug me.....